Newsprint producer sees no fall in demand
Reuter
WELLINGTON -- Despite the rise in newsprint prices and the deep effect it has had on the regions’s newspaper industry, Fletcher Challenge Ltd (FCL), one of the world’s biggest newsprint producers, says it has so far seen no fall-off in demand.
FCL’s mills, or those in which it has an equity interest, produce 2.1 million tonnes of newsprint a year from several locations around the world and they are currently running at capacity, FCL spokesman Barry Akers said.
Fletcher Canada, just over half owned by FCL, announced last week that it planned to raise its price to US$760 (S$1,056) per tonne from US$675 from Sept 1, in line with many other major producers.
Mr Akers said the newsprint price cycle was typically a long one spanning several years and one that tended to follow economic cycles.
Newsprint prices surged strongly in the mid to late 1980s to more than US$800 per tonne. "Where we are at now is still below the peaks set in the previous cycle," he said.
Analysts said the outlook for newsprint depends very much on what happens in the world economy.
Mr Akers said that if the US economy went off the boil, as some data has indicated it might, the effect would be more than countered by an eventual turnaround in Japan and growing demand from Asia, which is regarded as the real growth market.
"We think the outlook is pretty solid, at least for the next two or three years and possibly beyond that."
Share analyst Dennis Lee said that despite the apparent slowdown in the US economy the market for newsprint remained strong. -- Reuter.
Source : The Straits Times, 12th June 1995
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